Garcia to start points-leading car second in class; Milner eighth in tight GTLM fight
BRASELTON, Ga. (Oct. 12, 2018) – Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen will start their race toward a second straight IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship title from the front row of their category following qualifying for Saturday’s 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Garcia qualified second in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class with a lap of 1:17.030 (18.706 mph in his No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R on Friday afternoon – missing out on pole position by just 0.024 seconds. He and Magnussen, who will drive with Marcel Fässler, can repeat as champions with a fourth-place finish or better. But make no mistake: the goal is “better.”
A victory Saturday would be the first for the Garcia/Magnussen pairing this season. However, the No. 3 Corvette has finished on the GTLM podium in seven consecutive races and eight of 10 events.
Tommy Milner qualified eight in class with the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C7.R that he will share with Oliver Gavin and Fässler, who is pulling double duty Saturday. Milner, who qualified with a lap of 1:17.451 (118.061 mph), had been fastest in class during Thursday’s night practice and Friday’s final practice session. The closeness of the GTLM class was evident as he was just 0.445 seconds off pole position.
Corvette Racing hasn’t missed a Petit Le Mans since the program began in 1999. It has eight class victories – the most of any team in race history – and two additional Road Atlanta wins that came in American Le Mans Series sprint events.
The green flag for the Petit Le Mans is set for 11:05 a.m. ET on Saturday with live television coverage on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2. Streaming in-car footage along with live audio coverage of practice, qualifying and the race from IMSA Radio is available on IMSA.com.
ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SIRIUS XM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R — QUALIFIED SECOND IN GTLM:
“It’s not bad. Coming into this race, the first thing you want to be is competitive, so we are. That’s a good starting point to defend and go for the championship. If you don’t have the pace is when everybody panics. The way it is now, we feel like we could have had pole but we are up there. It’s a 10-hour race and anything can happen as we proved and we saw the previous years. We don’t need to get crazy about winning the race; we need to win this championship. We need to be smart.”
TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R – QUALIFIED EIGHTH IN GTLM:
“That was frustrating after having a fast car in practice. But we just missed it a little bit in qualifying. We are tweaking on it in each session and trying to find a little bit of performance. For the track temperature and the conditions, we had a window to try and get a good lap time but we were just off on balance during those crucial laps. I went for it again toward the end, and had lost enough of the newness of the tire that that was basically it. It’s unfortunate. It would have been fun to go for pole; we have a car that is capable of running up front like that. But it’s a 10-hour race, as a lot of people say who qualify at the back! But I’m really excited for this race. We’ve had a great Corvette so far. I’m not worried about missing it for two laps during qualifying.”
Source:
CorvetteRacing.com
Related:
[VIDEO] Mobil 1 the Grid: A Race for the Title
Corvette Racing at Road Atlanta: Championship Battle Down to the Wire
Corvette Racing at Road Atlanta: By the Numbers
No Change for the Corvette C7.Rs in New Balance of Performance (BoP) for Petit Le Mans
[VIDEO] Corvette Racing at Road Atlanta: Reliving the Pilgrim Pass
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